Ashes: Pat Cummins ready for Australia captaincy if Tim Paine not fit

The vice-captain of the Australia Test team, Pat Cummins, said on November 17 that he is ready to
manage his pace workload alongside the captaincy of the team if skipper Tim
Paine is not fit for the opening match of the Ashes series.

Earlier,
Cricket Australia (CA) had announced a 15-member squad for the opening of the
first two Ashes Tests, including skipper Paine who had gone through neck
treatment in September.

Also Read: US, West Indies set to co-host 2024 T20 World Cup

“Hopefully Tim
will be fine, he’s nearing 100 per cent … I’ll be ready if I have to, but I
doubt that,” Cummins was quoted as saying by Channel Nine.

The speedster added
that he had experienced players, like Smith and Warner, if he found the
captaincy role tough. “If I was in the role and I found it tough, at
times, there’s ten other guys I’d lean on out in the middle.

“You’ve got
people like Smithy and Davey Warner, who are incredibly experienced, all the
bowlers are experienced and look after themselves pretty well, so I’d have no
issues handing it over to other people to help out.”

Cummins has not
played red-ball cricket since February but he captained in the white ball tour
of West Indies and Bangladesh.  And he feels confident and ready for the
Ashes series.

Also read: Time off necessary: Rohit -Dravid bat for workload management

“With
no games, it gave me the chance to focus on a few different things, so my body
feels as good as it has in a couple of years,” Cummins said.

“There’s
no niggles, I feel really fresh and I always love going into a series giving
myself the best chance to turn up and, if I have to bowl 50 overs in a Test, I
can.” Ahead of the series opener, Australia will play one three-day
intra-squad match, starting December 1.

In
the Ashes, the 28-year-old will join his fellow speedsters Mitchell Starc and
Josh Hazlewood, who were all part of the Australia’s team that won their first
T20 World Cup.

Also Read: Hosting ICC Champions Trophy 2025 matter of pride: PCB Chief Ramiz Raja

“The
benefit of the short spells is that we’re really, really fresh. I always feel
like it’s better to be underdone than overdone coming into a big Test
series,” he said.

“We’ve
got access to quite a few centre wickets. We’ll have three, four, five centre
wickets where we try and have relatively big days, bowl a couple of spells on
those days, and then we’ll be ready to go.”

The first Ashes
Test is scheduled to begin on December 8 at the Gabba in Brisbane, followed by
the Day-Night Test on December 16 at Adelaide